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Ardat-Yakshi: Sisters of Wrath
Chapter I It was a warm evening on the homeworld of . Two powerful asari, Matriarch Ranassa and Priya Herania, stood at the top of the Republic Convention Tower and watched as the sun set over the great city of Serrice. It was once something that the two of them always did but this was the first time the two of them met one another at the tower in over 300 years. Priya Herania had only recently returned to Thessia; since the start of her matron stage of life she's been travelling the galaxy and mustering a collection of experience and stories to last several ( ) lifetimes. Now nearing the stage of matriarch, Priya made the decision to return to her birth place and prepare herself for her final years. Ranassa: "I'm happy to learn that you've finally decided to settle down here on Thessia, Priya." Priya: "Of course, Ranassa. I'm nearing a whole new stage in my life. As a matriarch, I should always be at the heart of my people's society." Ranassa: "I wish more asari were like you. Most are nearly my age yet pretend to still be in their 500s. I see great things ahead for you, my child." Priya: "Hopefully. I'm definitely behind in life so far. I haven't had a child or even found a suitable mate. What does that mean?" Ranassa: "It only means that you haven't found anyone good enough yet." Matriarch Ranassa and Priya were close friends, or more like family. Ranassa has been a mentor to Priya, in matters of both society and combat. Not only was Matriarch Ranassa a famed speaker and debater in the legislature but she was also a very powerful biotic and a well-trained huntress. She taught Priya everything she knew before she left on her travels, to prepare her for her new role as a matriarch and for the dangers that would surely follow her through her life. As the two asari reminisced about the past and discussed the future, another unknown made her way up the tower. The asari was clad in dark, black-and-red robes and a large hood which masked most of her face. Any attendants that attempted to speak with her received only cold glares from her bold, blistering eyes. The asari slowly yet steadily made her way up the large building, navigating corridors and elevators along the way. In a matter of time, the asari made her way to the balcony area and spotted Ranassa and Priya from a distance. After observing them for a few moments, the shadowy asari decided to make herself known. With one hand, the asari launched a massive mass effect field at the two of them. Ranassa quickly picked up on this and after pulling Priya behind her, she fired her own smaller but more concentrated field, splitting the opposing blast in two and causing it to disperse. A blue aura grew around Ranassa as she charged her power. She shouted at the hooded figure, demanding she reveal herself or suffer but the asari said nothing. She only removed her hood and when she did, Ranassa reacted strangely as if she knew the asari. Priya came to the side of Ranassa and entered her fighting stance, preparing to help her combat thise foe, but her mentor had other plans. Ranassa: "Priya, don't stay here. Run, now!" Priya: "What? That's insane, I'm not going anywhere." Ranassa: "I'm serious! She's too powerful! I'll hold her off but I won't last for long!" Priya: "I don't understand. I'm stronger than you think." Ranassa: "So is she, she's an Ardat-Yakshi and one who's mated a great amount by the feel of her power." Before Priya could make a rebuttal, the Ardat-Yakshi sprinted toward the two of them, hurling as she did. Ranassa Priya away and reflected the blasts with her bare hands. The Ardat-Yakshi closed the gap between herself and Ranassa and unleashed an onslaught of rapid jabs and kicks against the old matriarch, who effectively blocked and countered each one. By this time, Priya had drifted into the nearest elevator and Ranassa, noticing this, used her biotics to force the elevator downward as quickly as she could. Ranassa returned her attention to the Ardat-Yakshi; the was startled by her strength but not necessarily surprised by it. In an attempt to end it quickly, Ranassa summoned a massive , as did her opponent. As the two opposing shockwaves collided with one another, the two caused a a massive explosion. Dust and debris flew in all directions and the windows of the three floors closest to the top-floor shattered. The balcony of the tower caved in and caused a large crater in the roof. Even with all of this, the Ardat-Yakshi was unscathed, protected by a powerful . Ranassa, on the other hand, had scratches on her face and blood trickling from her nose. Ranassa: "It seems I'm not as strong as I used to be, especially if you've managed to injure me. What are you doing here, Nadia?" Nadia: "You know exactly why I'm here; a family should be together." Ranassa: "I won't let you get to her!" Nadia: "What choice do you have?" Ranassa sent two biotic waves at Nadia, which the Ardat-Yakshi simply brushed aside with one hand but Ranassa followed this up by her opponent and striking her with augmented strength, sending Nadia through the air. Nadia recovers before she could go too far and unleashes her own assault, creating a and ensnaring the matriarch within it. Debris consisting of metal scraps and shard of glass are sucked into the vortex and as Ranassa struggles to create and maintain a barrier around herself, she is slowly torn apart. The singularity finally bursts and leaves behind a cloud of dust and glowing particles. In the aftermath, Ranassa is left in a small crater nearly unconscious. Her dress has been shredded and her body became covered in gashes and blood. She struggled to stand on her own but her body would be ensnared in a field by Nadia and lifted. Nadia looked in Ranassa's eyes as the matriarch struggled to stay awake. Nadia: "So, that's all you have? I will admit you've taught me well but it's all obsolete now, master. I've become too strong for you. I didn't even need all of my power to deal with you." Ranassa: "How dare you? You better no your place, demon!" Nadia: "Is that why you and my mother left me to die but kept her around?! Do you really think she is so much better than me?!!" Ranassa: "I do... You will never amount to who she is." Nadia: "...What an odd choice for last words." Nadia lifted Ranassa's limp body higher up into the air and lifted a large broken pipe. With all her force, she launched the pipe with her biotics and impaled Ranassa in the abdomen then, to finish her off, Nadia hurled the body off of the building with a single . Nadia looked over the side of the balcony and watched Ranassa plummet for a few moments before recloaking herself in her dark robe and slipped away from the battle-scarred rooftop as local law enforcement closed in. Meanwhile, Priya attempted to return to the top of the tower but none of the elevators worked; the shockwave blast had cut all elevators from the top floor and the three floors under it. Priya had no other choice: if she was going to make it to the top floor in time to help her mentor, she would have to take the stairs up 80 floors. Before she could even get to the stairwell, however, she could hear a loud thud come from outside and a subsequent series of loud screaming. She ran outside of the building and witnessed her mentor, Ranassa splattered on the ground with a broken pipe stuck inside of her. Instantly, she broke down in tears. Chapter II It was one week later and Priya hadn't come out of her apartment since the evening of Ranassa's death. Every day and every night, she spent drinking alcohol and trying to get the image of Ranassa's bloodied corpse and glassed eyes from her memory but the sight had permanently stained her memory and couldn't be erased with any amount of alcohol. She also remembered the other asari, the dark-hooded figure with burning eyes; this memory, she was glad she couldn't forget. Though she was enraged and saddened by the death of someone who was like family to her, her people and tradition called; at one of the worst times possible in her life, the time of her becoming a matriarch was nearing and the ceremony was soon. Despite how she felt, Priya couldn't spit on such an important event of her life because she was depressed -- she had to go. The ceremony took place at a park just across from the Republic Convention Tower; though the ceremony was supposed to take place there, it was now a crime scene and being there was imossible. It was a solumn event, looked upon by most as something as beautiful as a wedding and as sad as a funeral. The recent death of Matriarch Ranassa was still fresh in everyones minds, especially Priya's but before the ceremony began she meditated on everything that had happened and realized that in order to get passed this, she would have to look forward. She didn't want to let her friend's murderer get away but she knew that Ranassa wouldn't have wanted her to corrupt herself over this -- she would want her to stand tall and become the wisest and most powerful matriarch that she could be. In a few hours, after the ceremony was over and Priya was officially a matriarch, she felt as if she was reborn. Upon returning to her apartment, however, it seemed that she wouldn't be able to just move on as she'd be greeted by Nadia. Everything that Priya had felt about letting ago earlier had been forgotten and, in a rage, she began a biotic assault of monstrous proportions. The entire apartment was obliterated in the onslaught, however, Nadia hadn't a single scratch. Nadia retaliated with a single biotic blast, tossing Nadia back into a wall and caaught her in a . Priya struggled with all of her might but t was useless, she was at the mercy of the Ardat-Yakshi that brutally slaughtered her mentor. Priya: "Well, what are you waiting for? Aren't you going to kill me in cold blood, too?" Nadia: "Kill you? That all depends on you, matriarch." Priya: "What do you want from me? Why did you kill Ranassa?!" Nadia: "She died because she got in my way. I told her that all I wanted was you but then again, I think she had it coming." Priya: "What?!" Nadia: "Everything you know, everything they've taught, it's all a lie. I can open your eyes to the truth." Priya: "What are you talking about, get to the fucking point!!" Before Nadia could say anything, she was interrupted as police rushed through the front door. Armed with and , the policewomen opened fire on Nadia. They broke her concentration for a moment and as she was forced to put up a biotic barrier to protect herself from the hail of gunfire, Priya took the opportunity to break free of the weakened stasis field and crush Nadia by picking up her sofa and it on top of the Ardat-Yakshi, knocking her unconscious. Priya tossed the sofa aside and prepaired to finish Nadia but one of the officers -- Detective Fera -- called to her. Fera: "Ma'am, we've got her!" Priya: "She shouldn't be aloud to live, officer! I should just crush her now!" Fera: "You don't really want to do that." Priya: "Oh, I really do. More than you could ever know." Fera: "Then I'd have to take you in, and I don't want to have to do that." Priya finally backed down, not from fear of imprisonment but because she knew justice didn't work that way. She knew that Ranassa would've done the same thing had circumstances been different and besides, there were still things that Priya wanted to know. She decided to let the officers take her but she would go with them to process Nadia at their headquarters. Priya: "So, how'd you know that she was there?" Fera: "We didn't actually. We were on the way to your apartment just to provide routine security. It's what we always do after a matriarchal ceremony. When we saw the apartment explode, that's when we rushed up." Priya: "Oh, good timing though." Fera: "Looked like she was really going to do some damage." Priya: "I don't know what she was going to do. She had more than a few chances to take me out but she didn't, she talked." Fera: "She did?! What did she say?" Priya: "Not much, just a bunch of nonsense. I still want to talk to her though and see if I can get some straight answers." Priya arrives with the detectives at the police station. Nadia is still unconscious but even so, she's still a threat; an Ardat-Yakshi's biotics can become so powerful and unstable that she could crush everything in a room in her sleep. They brought Nadia to a cell and had all of her limbs cuffed together and her body strapped to a chair. An kinetic barrier would keep her trapped for the time being and a squad of heavily-armed guards were placed near her cell but everyone in that station, including Priya, knew that there was no way to keep her there if she grew as powerful as they feared. Priya entered the cell with her would-be murderer; she wanted to be there when she woke up. Not two seconds after Priya entered the cell, Nadia awoke as if on cue and greeted the matriarch with a grin. Nadia: "I didn't get a chance to congratulate you, Priya. Becoming a matriarch is something else. I'm surprised you lived long enough to become one." Priya: "Yeah, sorry I'm not that easy to kill." Nadia: "Oh, but you are. The fact that I had you trapped like a by the tail proves that. If I were trying to kill you, you'd be dead by now." Priya: "Who are you." Nadia: "They did a good job of keeping you in the dark." Priya: "What are you talking about?" Nadia: "I know why you haven't had a child. It's not that you can't find a mate, you just keep killing them." Priya: "I don't know what you're talking about." Nadia: "I've been watching you, for far too long. You're no different than me." Priya: "Who are you?!" Nadia: "My name is Nadia. I am your sister." Priya: "Don't lie to me, Demon!" Nadia: "It's the truth. I was born before you and when they found out I was an Ardat-Yakshi, our parents sent me away to a monastarie. They had another child who they loved, far more than me. Unfortunately, they learned that she was an Ardat-Yakshi too but they couldn't bare to part with her. All these years, they've been harboring an Ardat-Yakshi -- you." Priya: "I will not be lied to by a genetic reject!" Nadia: "Before our parents were killed, they confided in the only person they could trust, Ranassa. She promised to take care of you in their absense." Priya: "If this were true, how would you know about this?" Nadia: "Ranassa helped them get rid of me. Our parents were well-respected people, no one even knew they were together, let alone parents of Ardat-Yakshi. Ranassa helped them protect their image." Priya: "You are a LIAR!!" Nadia: "Enough! I won't waste my time anymore. If you want to live, come with me. You can become so much more powerful if you let me show you who you truly are." A blue aura covered Nadia and the chair and shackles that binded her were evaporated as an explosion of energy pulsated from her body. Priya charged her biotics and readied her fighting stance. The guards outside of the cell deactivated the barrier and readied their guns but Nadia used her powerful biotics to put up another in it's place. The guards tried to shoot their way in and the building's alarm sounded. Nadia wasn't worried about being restrained again, she let herself get captured. Nadia blasted a hole through her cell wall and prepared her escape but before she did she propositioned Priya to join her one more time. At this point, Nadia had a plan in motion. She told the story of Priya's origins within ear-shot of the guards for a reason, to raise suspicions of the matriarch. If Priya refused again, Nadia would make sure that she'd reconsider down the line by turning everyone against her. Soon, Detective Fera made it to the cell. Nadia: "Oh, Detective. Do you know about the matriarch here, about where she came from and what she is?" Fera: "What do you mean?" Priya: "Don't listen to her." Nadia: "Oh, she'll listen because she knows aswell as I do that something is off about you. I think you're going to have to get a gene sample from this one, Officer." Fera: "Am I missing something here?" Nadia: "Do you not see the resemblance between me and her. The new matriarch is an Ardat-Yakshi, a weak one but a demon none the less. Just like me." Priya: "It's not true, Detective." Nadia: "You can't fool her, Priya. Before you left Thessia in the first place, who do you think it was that cleaned up those bodies." Priya: "No, those were just accidents! If I were an Ardat-Yakshi, someone would have told me." Nadia: "Shouldn't you have been able to tell on your own." Priya grew silent, she didn't know what to say. She's had a lot of memories, many of which Ranassa had taught her to block out. Priya had forgotten most of her early days on Thessia. Her first experience melding minds with another resulted in their death but extreme stimulation for herself. At this point, Ranassa and her parents tried to hide Priya's nature and even though they forbade her from melding, she did it anyway. That's when she remembered, she didn't leave Thessia on her own, she was sent away. Memories of blacking out and waking up with dead bodies flooded back to her. She spent much of her life trying to control these urges and once she felt she did, she cloaked them in the darkest reaches of her memory. Unfortunately for her, not all urges or memories could be purged completely. As the memories rushed back to her, Priya began to cry; what Nadia said about her was true. Nadia felt that she had accomplished her goal. With a grin, Nadia retreated into the gaping hole she made in her cell and escaped. The barrier that she placed had evaporated and the guards rushed in the cell. Fera ordered the guards to follow Nadia through her escape route before turning to Priya. Nadia: "Ma'am, you'll understand if I ask for a gene sample." Chapter III Priya sat in the precinct and waited for the results of her gene test. She was nervous, more nervous than she’d ever been, but she knew the results already. If Nadia’s story was true, why would her parents keep her and not Nadia. Why would they risk everything for one Ardat-Yakshi and dispose of the other without hesitation? It was baffling to say the least but what was the strangest thing to her was Nadia’s decision to enter Priya’s life now out of all other possible times. Why not recruit her when she was younger, why wait? It was only a matter of time before Fera returned with the results of Priya’s gene test… and several heavily-armed guards. Fera: “Please, come with us.” This was it. Priya didn’t know what was about to happen to her. All she could think about was how, in a matter of days, everything in her life had come crashing down. Fera and the guards brought Priya to an armored shuttle and bound her to restraints built-in to the vehicle and as the shuttle lifted off, Priya began to think which fate she would choose for herself. The shuttle ride was long and silent with no one onboard saying a word. The vehicle neared a tall building at the center of Serrice and made preparations to land. Priya knew that this was where the rest of her life would begin. The shuttle landed on a port near the top of the building and Priya was escorted from the vehicle where she and Fera were met by another group of heavily-armed personnel and Yamara Derrian, Serrice’s Chief of Security and Law Enforcement. Yamara: “I’ll take it from here, Officer.” Fera passed Priya over to Yamara and made her way back to the shuttle but not before sending one last glance at Priya. The look was a combination of pity and sorrow and Priya met it with a look of forgiveness. In the end, Priya knew that what she was made her dangerous and that Fera was only doing her job. Yamara and the guards brought Priya inside of the building, processed her into the building’s Security System, and escorted her into a large- dark room. The room was massive and circular with a series of chairs on the edge of the room, steadily wrapping upward. A single light glared in the center of the room with a pedistal and microphone. One of the guards pushed Priya with the butt of her rifle and herded her onto the pedistal. As she stepped on the platform, magnetic binds came from the platform and clutched her hands and feet tightly. Dim lights where the chairs were slowly began to illuminate the seats and revealed several asari matriarchs who glared down at her with snarling expressions. Priya looked up at them as they announced their names; Matriarch Asadera, Matriarch Orlavia, Matriarch Brafizen, Matriarch Pregortia, and Matriarch Drakiva, all very old and respected matriarchs, were assembled to pass judgement on Priya. Asadera: “Matriarch Priya, newest asari to join our ranks…” Orlava: “Genetic evidence has been presented to us. Evidence that proves what you are…” Brafizen: “Ardat-Yakshi. A demon who has no right to mate or live among society.” Pregortia: “Yet you’ve done so for a millenia and for that, the consequences.” Drakiva: “Death by public beheading.” Priya: “What?! Shouldn’t I be given a choice. Why can’t I live at the monasterie.” Asadera: “For 1000 years you’ve lived among us in freedom and risked all of our lives.” Priya: “I didn’t know!” Orlava: “That is no excuse! The fact that your parents and peers knew and did nothing is disgusting. Were they not already dead, they’d receive the same punishment.” Brafizen: “Escort the Ardat-Yakshi to the Execution Chambers for her sentence.” The guards came and snatched Priya’s body from the platform and rushed her away to the Execution Chamber a few levels down in the building. They shackled her into a large contraption that held her head and hands in place. A huntress neared with a large blade in hand. Three cameras hovered down and fixed on Priya’s head, this was it. Priya couldn’t move her head much but she managed to look up enough to see the holograms of the matriarchs appear in front of her. Everywhere else, every billboard and public monitor had begun to show Priya’s execution. In parks, public squares, and shopping centers everyone stopped what they were doing and watched. A matriarch was about to be executed; this hadn’t happened in over 10,000 years. The matriarchs began to state the charges against Priya and the punishment to be carried out. Everyone was shocked, Priya Herania an Ardat-Yakshi? No one really knew of her origins so anything seemed plausible but Ardat-Yakshi never crossed anyones minds. The matriarchs finished their sentecing and signaled the huntress. The blade-wielding executioner raised the extremely sharp blade above her head and readied every muscle in her body for the single slash meant to behead the matriarch. Just as she prepared to bring it down on Priya’s neck, a blue aura hazed over the sword and suddenly it fell on the huntress, slicing her skull in half and causing blood to spurt everywhere. Nadia dropped from the ceiling and, with a quick series of biotic blasts and lethal jabs, cut down every guard in the room. Nadia fired a massive shockwave into the wall, punching hole through the building. She broke Priya’s restraints and turned her attention on the cameras, smashing them with powerful mass effect fields. Nadia: “Let’s go!” Priya: “What?!” Nadia: “Every guard in the building will be swarming this room in 15 seconds. Let’s go!!” Priya quickly jumped to her feet. Nadia grabbedthe matriarch by the wrist and sprinted toward the gaping opening. Priya didn’t know what to think, but she knew she wasn’t going to stand their and die. Without hesitation Nadia and Priya jumped through the hole and out of the building. The to of them plummeted at high-speed but Priya noticed Nadia was able to easily maneuver. She watched as the Ardat-Yakshi maneuvered toward the side of the building and slid down the side of the building on her feet. Priya followed her lead and did the same and as they began to slow down, Priya noticed a red shuttle closing. It quickly neared and hovered further down the building than the two asari. In a single leap, Nadia bounded off of the building and landed on the shuttle. Priya did the same but missed the shuttle by a few inches yet she was saved by Nadia who grabbed her hand and pulled her up on the shuttle. The shuttle’s door opened and let Priya and Nadia inside before speeding away. The driver of the vehicle, a by the name of Drau Meldoc, quickly dove into the nearest line of traffic to blend in with the other vehicles. Meldoc: "You two okay?" Nadia: "Yeah, It was easier getting in and out than I thought. Get us to the shipyard, we're getting off of this planet." The shuttle shifted out of the traffic line and made it's way toward the abandoned shipyard. There, Nadia had a freighter hidden prepared to take off whenever needed. The shuttle ride was quiet, with Priya sitting in the backseat staring out of the window and Nadia sitting in the front passenger seat. Meldoc nudged Nadia's shoulder and gestured his head toward Priya, signaling her to talk to the matriarch. Nadia: "Oh yeah, this is Meldoc." Priya: "I wish I could say that it's nice to meet you, krogan." Meldoc: "It's Meldoc." Priya: "It doesn't matter to me." Meldoc: "You could be a little more polite. After all, we just risked our own hides to save you." Priya: "I didn't ask you to." Nadia: "You know, you may hate us but we're the only thing you have. The people that you used to know, the ones that used to love you, they're going to hunt you and if they can, they will kill you." Priya: "And what would make you risk yourself for me?" Nadia: "...You're my sister." Priya: "..." Nadia: "..." Priya: "...Thak you, though. For helping me." Nadia: "Don't worry about it." Priya: "So, how do you and Meldoc know eachother." Nadia: "He's my lover, If you can believe it." Priya: "Really? How do you two manage without mating?" Meldoc: "Who says we don't mate?" Priya: "I don't understand." Nadia: "It's rare but very few minds are so strong-willed, they are able to survive a melding process with an Ardat-Yakshi. It's more common with krogan than any other kind." Meldoc: "Ha, I picked her up at a night club and brought her back to my place. She tried to turn me brain dead but when she saw that I survived, we kinda just hit it off." After a few more minutes of talking went by, they finally arrived at the abandoned shipyard. The shuttle glided into a condemned building covered with rust and wild vegetation. Inside was an . The occupants of the shuttle quickly exited and boarded the shuttle, preparing it for lift-off. Priya found herself in a strange situation; everything about her life was a lie, everyone she once knew wants her dead, and her only allies seem to be a krogan and her long-lost Ardat-Yakshi sister. The freighter took off and rocketed through the sky. From this point on, Priya would have to forget everything she once knew to survive. Category:Fan Fiction Category:Wanye Kest